10/31/11

This Week in Scripture; is honor worth preserving?

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him. - Psalm 4:2-3

In many cultures, honor is the most precious thing a person can own; to lose face is a grave insult on a person's honor (So much so that the Japanese, for example, will say "hai" (yes) when they mean that they understand you. They're not agreeing with you, but they want you to save face and they don't want to say "iie" (no).).

Americans don't have this concept of honor; we'd rather be positive, even when lying to one another ("That ___ looks great on you!" "No offense, but..." and other lovely American sayings come to mind.). We don't want to offend the other person (Notice that it's a concept of "saving face".), but we're also willing to spread lies and gossip about people ("Did you hear about...? He/she is a ....!") and, in some ways, ruins our honor. When we speak ill of people, we are not trusted in the future with things that are important to our friends (If we gossip, then it's likely that we'll gossip about our friends and their personal business.).

That's why we're told to avoid slanderous words and things that are not beneficial; in a sense, that preserves our honor (As if we have any to begin with!). It's also worth noting that our honor is oftentimes defiled because we belong to Christ and the world hates Messiah.

Here's the best part of these verses: God Himself set His people apart from the rest and He hears us when we call to Him. Even in times of despair and dishonor, we can run to our Father and He will draw us to Him.

How's that for a personal God?

Today also happens to be Reformation Day; Martin Luther, on this day, nailed his 95 Theses on the doors of the Wittenburg church in Germany. His desire was to reform the Church from within; instead, the eventual birth of the Protestant movement (From Protest-ant; those that have protested some of the activities that the Catholic church was doing, such as selling indulgences.). Happy Reformation Day, everyone!

No comments: